In The Mummy movies, Rachel Weisz plays a bookish (but surprisingly athletic) 1920s Egyptologist named Evelyn Carnahan. Tomb Raider’s Lara Croft is of a similar pedigree: the well-educated daughter of a wealthy, aristocratic British archaeologist. In Jungle Cruise, Emily Blunt is a posh, surprisingly athletic English botanist in the 1910s. So many of these movies refer to history for their myths and MacGuffins, particularly the British empire. So not such a “brand new” story after all. His arch-rival in the race to find Magellan’s treasure is a descendant of the Spanish family that originally funded Magellan. (There is little discussion about where Magellan might have acquired such riches, or who its rightful owners might be.) Holland’s character is Nathan Drake, son of an American archaeologist and self-proclaimed descendent of Francis Drake, England’s own 16th-century imperialist plunderer. According to the film, his booty-laden ships are still out there, somewhere in the Philippines. The treasure in question here is that of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, who led an expedition that circumnavigated the globe in the name of the Spanish empire 500 years ago. Uncharted is primarily unchallenging popcorn fare, but as with so many treasure-hunt movies, its connections to the real history of colonial plunder are barely disguised.
Last year, the Belgian government agreed to return some 2,000 “stolen” artefacts to Congo, and Unesco urged the British Museum to return the Parthenon (AKA Elgin) marbles to Greece. Institutions in Europe and the US have begun returning looted artefacts, such as the Benin Bronzes, which were taken from Nigeria by the British in 1897. In real life, however, the direction of travel is now more in the opposite direction. As anyone who has visited a European or American museum in the past century will know, this is not pure fiction. There’s no way round it: these are stories of white people travelling to lands populated by non-white people and stealing their stuff. But it is also a narrative with a legacy. A fifth instalment of Indiana Jones is halfway through shooting.Ĭlearly, this is a formula that works. It is, in short, a total mess at a very deep level.Next month we will be getting The Lost City, with Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum questing in Central America. Its trying to be a sequel that retells the original story. Its trying to both be true to original ideas and be "modern" and up-to-date at the same time. Deepest problem: the story (Lost Empire) is trying to both be and not be "Journey to the West" at the same time. At least not like the characters that you enjoyed when reading "Journey to the West". In fact, none of the characters behaves "in character". If you need a 3rd party (a goddess no less) to convince other people that you have become enlightened and have been blessed by the Buddha, well, its clear to me that the story is saying one thing, but doing another. You can really tell the weakness in the writing when Kwan Yin has to tell Monkey's old teacher that "Monkey HAS been blessed by the Buddha".
The problem with this is that a) they don't act like enlightened beings, and b) there isn't much drama possible when you are enlightened. They are both "supposed" to be enlightened beings. This story (Lost Empire) takes place AFTER Monkey and Sandy have achieved their ultimate state. Deeper problems: Journey to the West is, at its core, at Buddhist story about the quest to attain enlightenment (along with the fun stuff about beating demons).
#The lost empire the monkey king full movie movie#
The depiction of Confucius in this movie is totally at odds with EVERYTHING that Confucius stood for.) The last half-hour of the movie was anti-climactic, over-wrought, and uninteresting. He was only interested in how a good state was run. He had no interest in religion and spirits. A really ugly and totally wrong portrait of Confucius (I could go on for some time but I'll stick with this key point: Confucius was a materialist. Some of the art design for the palace of the Jade Emperor was good (but NOT the throne room, yuk!). Some interplay between "Sandy" and the "Scholar from Above" was funny.
Some scenes with Monkey and the "Scholar from Above" went well (mainly the scenes when Monkey rescues his subjects on Flower Fruit Island). Good points: The lovely Ling Bai did a good job as the Bodhisattva of Compassion (Kwan Yin). Hwang lost more by giving up on the original characters than he gained by having a modern setting. I regard this as a mistake as I believe Mr. David Hwang's screenplay is in many respects a sequel to the original story, as opposed to being a modern rendition of the original story. Lost Empire, a VERY strange title for a retelling of the old Chinese classic adventure "Journey to the West", is a mixed bag of a film.